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If the feminist movement has one person to whom it owes its birthright, it’s Mary Wollstonecraft, author of AVindication of the Rights of Woman. An outspoken feminist, Wollstonecraft was also the mother of Mary Shelley, author of the infamous Frankenstein. Tragically, Wollstonecraft died ten days after giving birth to Shelley, but her legacy still managed to profoundly affect her daughter and ultimately the lives of millions of women.

Charlotte Gordon tells their story in Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter Mary Shelley via a dual biography.

Wollstonecraft, born in 1759, was the second of seven children of an alcoholic, physically abusive father and a remote unloving mother. From a young age, she was acutely aware of the inequalities between the sexes. After educating herself with the help of a friend’s parent, she started a small school, rescued her sister from an abusive marriage, then set out to write her groundbreaking book.

For Wollstonecraft the crux of the problem was not women, but how men wanted women to be. She felt women’s liberty should matter to everyone and that there could only be true love if partners were equal. When she published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792, it was well-received by most liberal academics of the time while also causing an uproar with the general population.

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Daughter Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein caused an equally noisy din, shocking society that a woman would ever write a book like this.

Both women lived similar lives in that they were hundreds of years ahead of their time. Both struggled to support themselves as writers. Not only did they believe in the equality of women in terms of education and vocation, but they felt strongly that the institution of marriage only hurt women. That belief brought both challenges and the judgment of society. For instance, both women lived with partners outside of marriage at some point.

As feminists, finding a soul mate was no easy task. Both eventually married men they loved, despite their abhorrence to marriage. They did so to protect themselves and their children from the slings of society, but doing so hurt their credibility as feminists. Both were also deeply attached to their children.

Still the realities of the time were overwhelming. Unplanned pregnancies, infant mortality and the dangers of childbirth all stacked up to challenge both. Wollstonecraft died of complications from childbirth. Three of daughter Mary Shelley’s children died, wreaking its emotional toll.

While Mary Shelley’s legacy lived on with Frankenstein, Wollstonecraft’s was so revised by her husband William Godwin it damaged her reputation for years. In addition to ignoring her book about the French Revolution, Godwin published a memoir using materials previously excised from her works and unflattering letters written to the father of her first child. Fortunately, Gordon’s work, as well as that of other modern academics, restores her reputation.

The book is well-researched and referenced. While it’s lengthy, it’s also very readable. Gordon brings to life everything from Wollstonecraft’s time in Paris during the French Revolution to the intimacies of Mary Shelley’s relationship with the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.

The dual-biography structure is sometimes jarring. At other times, Gordon’s technique of alternating chapters in an attempt to show the similarities and differences in the lives of the two is very effective. Because both women are named Mary, at times readers find it difficult to get keep the characters and narratives straight.

Still, at a time when mothers are scrutinized so closely, it’s a worthy read. Being a good mother and living a life of value can involve more than just caring for your own children. Both women braved the judgment of a harsh society and in doing so were instrumental in changing the world for generations of women to come. As Gordon reminds us of Wollstonecraft — “She started a revolution that has yet to end.”

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